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Chapter 2

The weeks following the inspection were unusually quiet. Normal SOLDIER life resumed, though they were still on constant standby due to the war. Angeal busied himself mentoring young recruits, Genesis continued to study Loveless in any free time he could and lend his talents to the Midgar theatrical society. And Sephiroth

"Well", he thought to himself, "…I don't really do anything now, do I?"

Aside his usual training, he sometimes helped mentor along with Angeal, but he didn't feel like it today. So he had gone through his usual morning routine, grabbed breakfast on the go and holed himself up in the Shin-ra data rooms.

He liked to read if he ever got bored. There was always something he was interested in. Sephiroth smirked to himself. Now he thought about it, he was actually quite nosy. But he was also a private man and anything found out he usually kept to himself or, if it was particularly interesting, he'd tell Genesis and Angeal. The only thing that he couldn't seem to research was himself.

Research.

Like some kind of school project, he thought. The fact he knew nothing about who he was was a constant weight on his mind. The fact that he'd always felt different, special, but could never find answers. No one was willing to tell him. He knew Shin-ra had been his entire life. Always living in Midgar, always serving the company. But the scant information he had been told was hardly enough. His mothers name, that was it. He knew he'd received the SOLIDER treatment at a very young age and that, according to Professor Hojo, explained everything. Aside from that, all he had were his memories growing up. Most of them were unpleasant and he shook his head before he recalled too much. Shin-ra was all he'd ever known and all he was ever going to know at this rate.

Sephiroth lowered the file in his hand and leaned back in his chair, now distracted. Now, more so than he'd ever done, he found himself questioning why he did what he did. Because he was raised too, was his automatic response. But once the war had been won and his use changed to that of an elite SOLDIER and a public figure as well, he found himself questioning it more and more. Just what was he meant to do? Spend his entire life fighting? Working for the company that had raised him? His relationship to Shin-ra was an odd one. When he was a child he was isolated and trained to fight. He was sent to Wutai as a child SOLDIER at the age of twelve. Most children would have been in school. But he was fighting. Studying in his down time and then back to fighting. He'd never got to play or have fun, to do the normal things teenage boys were meant to do. It was miraculous, he thought, that he even had a personality.

Sephiroth attributed that to Professor Gast. He missed the man. While his carers were content to lock him in his room with a computer for study, Gast had sneaked him out and played with him. Took him to buy ice cream. Taught him things but in a fun way. Though he was never told, Sephiroth had often wondered if the man was his father.

That just made it more painful.

Sephiroth sighed and rubbed his eyes, catching at last his distraction and feeling a sense of frustration. Why was he thinking of these things. There was no need. The past was the past and it was done with. And for now, he just had to accept his origins were a mystery.

Sephiroth left the data rooms and headed back to the building in the Shin-ra residential area reserved for employees who needed accommodation. His apartment was a modest affair though thanks to his rank and status it was better than most. Executives of course had their own separate block on the other side of the main building that was altogether grander and a larger waste of money than the standard building. Still, the apartment floors were the higher than the standard accommodation, giving Sephiroth a nice, relatively private view of the surrounding city.

He held his ID card up to the electronic sensor beside the large double glass doors and they slid open, permitting him inside. The building was built like a large hollow tube. Two glass elevators ran up the core of the building and the rooms and apartments were built around the outsides, forming donut shaped floors. Sephiroth had to ride the elevator up and down from the 33rd floor each day he was in residence and he'd long since ran out of things to stare at as he rode the glass cylinder for the second time today.

He stepped out onto his floor. Four apartments shared the upper layers of the building but only the residence opposite him was currently occupied, leaving the other two empty. Sephiroth rather enjoyed this. No neighbours. No noise to disturb him. Genesis and Angeal lived two floors down from him and had apartments side by side. He swiped his ID card again and keyed in a PIN to unlock his room

Technically he was on constant standby in case anything happened in the city that needed him. But things were still quiet and Sephiroth was always allowed to do as he pleased, deciding to remove his heavy shoulder armour in an effort to try and relax a little.

Moving into a small room dedicated to storing his personal equipment, he unclasped the pauldrons and settled them on their custom made stand, rolling his shoulders to loosen them up. His eyes flicked to the bag that he'd just dumped in a corner upon arriving from Wutai. It still contained the small package he'd almost successfully left behind.

Sephiroth crossed the room and felt around for the handkerchief, pulling it out and taking it with him to the main living area of his home where he unwrapped it and lay it out on the kitchen work top. It appeared to be made of mithril, the blue marbled metal was well known to him though you didn't see it much in SOLDIER due to its cost. The focus of the piece was in the fair sized tear drop cage which served as a pendant, inside was what appeared to be a small piece of materia. But Sephiroth couldn't feel any energy coming from it. Perhaps it was fake. He'd never heard of materia that was completely inert, even fledgling materia held some kind of aura. But this was lifeless. Almost certainly just a glass bead made to resemble the real thing.

Why had he even brought it with him. Sephiroth chastised himself. He wasn't really materialistic. Small things like this were of no concern, especially jewellery. The few possessions he had that could be considered personal were mostly for physical comfort. For winding down at the end of a stressful week. Or good food and drink and the various paraphernalia needed to prepare them. He held no attraction to physical adornment, never felt the need to pierce his ears or wear jewellery.

Sephiroth huffed a small sigh and moved back to his equipment closet to change his coat into something less recognisable. A simple black trench with a fur lined hood. Seeing as he had the necklace, but had no idea why, he might as well see if it was worth anything. A walk into Midgar might help alleviate some of his boredom as well.

He pocketed the jewellery and left his apartment, heading for the glass lift that would take him to the ground floor. The current weather in Midgar was dismal, though it nearly always was, and Sephiroth flipped his hood up to ward against it. The added benefit to this action was that it hid his unmistakable hair which would keep harassment to a minimum. Though, he thought with a smirk, a lot of people found it hard to even approach him.

His quiet, almost cold nature led people to believe he was always serious. One hundred percent of the time. So he had built his image on peoples perceptions. It made keeping his privacy easy and he liked that. He didn't have Genesis' blatant, out-going ego or Angeal's big brother vibe. He was just Sephiroth. He knew he was skilled. He knew he was powerful, but he preferred quiet modesty most of the time. He needed approval, nor acknowledgement, from no one.

Midgar was a dark, gloomy city on a good day, but on a day like this it was practically night time. The big, black rain clouds mingled with the layer of smog that hung over the city, blocking out all of the sunlight that may or may not have been present. The sheets of rain reduced visibility and people huddled down against it, coats drawn tight and hoods zipped right up to their wearers noses. Mercifully, it wasn't windy, Sephiroth thought to himself and he popped up the umbrella he'd grabbed from the reception desk before heading out to the train station. Sephiroth needed to get to sector 5, the retail part of the city. It was home to numerous jewellery shops and brokers. He decided a good step was the get the necklace appraised, to see if it was just mass produced junk or one of a kind, though something told him it wasn't poor quality; The craftsmanship was delicate and beautiful.

"Found it you say? Astonishing…" The broker held the necklace up and studied it through a magnifying monocle. He nodded several times and set it back on the table. Sephiroth waited patiently as the small man reached under his counter and hefted up a large binder and began to rifle through it.

"Ah yes. This necklace was actually made by a well know artisan, you might get better luck talking to the young man in his Midgar shop. I can give you directions if you like"

"Please. That would be helpful" Sephiroth said. The broker scribbled a set of instructions on a piece of paper and handed them to him. He looked over them quickly before folding them up and placing them, along with the necklace, back in his pocket. Sephiroth paid the appraisal fee, Thanked the broker and turned to leave the shop, looking at the handwritten instructions in his hand. He followed them until he came across a small side alley that was partially blocked with forgotten trashcans. It seemed the sanitation department had declared themselves fair weather only. He stepped around them and started walking down the narrow street. The shops down here were smaller, more private. And more interesting. All sorts of curiosities were being sold from antique furniture to lamps made from ladies corsets. Sephiroth chuckled softly to himself. Very unique indeed.

The jewellers he needed was actually the shop marking the end of the street, its facade was bright and inviting, though, Sephiroth wondered, slightly wasted since this alley was so unassuming. He unfolded his umbrella and propped it up outside before stepping in, the jingle of the shop's bell heralding his arrival. While he waited for the attendant he had a look around. A well-lit, glass appraisal table formed a centrepiece to the shop with glittering trinkets winking out at him from display cabinets lining the walls. Some of the price tags made him lift an eyebrow in surprise. He wondered what sort of people would pay that much.

"Hello there how can I...ah! Mr Sephiroth, what a pleasure to see you in our small shop" The shops attendant finally arrived from behind a curtain in the corner. He was a mature, well groomed man wearing an impeccably pressed pinstripe suit. Again Sephiroth found himself wondering how many customers this place actually got to be presented so well, considering it was well hidden. He greeted the man back and pulled out the necklace, explaining where he'd got it from and how he had been advised to come here. The attendants face lit up as soon as he caught sight of the piece and he eagerly took it from Sephiroth's gloved hand.

"This is remarkable, truly remarkable. You say you found this? In a beaten up old desk no less? I must say you are very lucky Sir" He placed the necklace down on the glass table and produced a magnifying glass from a drawer in its side.

"Oh?" Sephiroth took a seat across from the attendant who had also sat down.

"Yes...yes Oho. This is a one off piece, my friend"

Sephiroth's eyebrow twitched,

"My father makes all the jewellery you see around you, has been doing so for thirty years. He's quite a name you know and the older and rarer a piece is, the more its worth. Well to do people flock to buy his exquisite works of art"

"And I'm guessing this necklace is both rare and old?"

"Most definitely. I recognise this from Father's 'most wanted' list. He keeps a file with pieces he's made over the year that he'd like to re-acquire. Circled in red on the first page no less. He has a circle of high profile clients that like to collect his rarer, vintage pieces and are willing to pay handsomely for them. You see this metal?"

Sephiroth leaned in for a closer look,

"its pure mythril. The blue, faintly marbled material is wonderful for making jewellery, but very expensive. Look, here's our watermark"

Sephiroth peered at the distorted magnified mark stamped on the inside of one of the embellishments on the chain.

"The pendent itself is a beautiful gem cut and polished to resemble materia. The spun cage surrounding it is also mythril. Very hard. Very strong"

"Just how old is it?" Sephiroth asked, mostly ignoring the man's sales pitch.

The attendant hummed gently a moment before replying, "If memory serves me, father made this about twenty years ago"

No wonder it looked so tarnished.

"So Mr Sephiroth. Let's talk business. I would be willing to give you five thousand Gil for this piece right now. Cash in hand" He stared at Sephiroth, apparently not intimidated in the slightest. The cold, hard stare of a shrewd businessman, he thought. Five thousand indeed, he was certain that was a rip off if it really was as rare as he made out.

Sephiroth spent the next few minutes negotiating a better price out of the man as he also wasn't intimidated. after all, now he knew what it was he could always just sell it himself, which he pointed out of course. Finally he managed to get twelve thousand gil in exchange for the piece. Not bad, he thought, for something I picked out of the trash. But as he pocketed the mans business card and turned to leave a fragmented memory of the dream he had before he discovered the thing flooded his mind. It took him quite by surprise. A child's giggle, the smell of warm meadows, love…

"Is there anything else I can help you with, Sir?"

Sephiroth realised he had paused with his hand on the door and he glanced back, the necklace arranged on the glass table,

"No…I was just leaving"

Last edit - 25/02/2016